What couplers do i use?


B

Bonita Grand Central

Well-Known Member
I have 65 freight cars and 12 cabeese?? and haven't counted the passenger cars yet. I want to get all the couplers the same kind so they will hopefully work together so I'm going through all of them and upgrading the wheels, adjusting the trucks and changing all the couplers. Question is what couplers to get? I think I want all kayDee but have many horn-hook and what looks to be several different types of knuckler couplings that don't all work well with others.:mad: Some of the cars are named by the seller but most are not . Where to begin? Can I order a bunch of couplers from kayDee for all the cars or do I have to decide on what to use for each car? Please tell me what you would do in this case. Looking at the KD instructions is very confusing for me.
 
Many cars will take the same coupler, whether standard, scale, whisker, or standard.
Many cars will not. There's not really a "one size fits all", unless you have all Athearn Blue Box 40 foot boxcar kits in your fleet.
 
Here is part of the fleet. Most of the loco's have been changed to KD.
 

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Thanks for that Gomez but that doesn't tell me what to start with. I can't figure out what to order to get this project going. Who ever thought there were so many kinds of couplers? I sure didn't. Like that yellow one right about in the middle. The wheels and trucks are good but the couplers don't work well. They open up and come loose or don't fit well with other couplers so it can't be used. The green one just under the yellow one is the same way. They both have knuckle couplers that won't hold so I need some new ones.
 
Kadee #148 whisker couplers will work well with most cars that have body mount couplers. Athearn, Atlas, Walther's, Accurail to name a few. They're available in bulk packs of 50 at reasonable prices. If your existing knuckle couplers are Kadee #5's, they match up perfectly with the #149's as long as everything is at the correct height.
Note that older Athearn freight cars will require a #208 red Kadee washer on each truck to bring the car/coupler up to the NMRA recommended height.
 
Hi Willie and thanks for the reply. I've been studying the KD instructions and it looks like #5 is the most popular and the #149 is there a lot too. What threw me off was not being able to tell the manufacturer of the cars. I have one from Life Like and one from Yugoslavia. The LL is listed but not the Yugoslavia one. I have no idea if I have any older Athearn freight cars or not but wouldn't be surprised if I did. This is a collection of cars going back to the 70's from all sorts of suppliers. Anyway I'll order some #5's and some #149's to get me going and see what happens after that.
I appreciate the reply from you and from Gomez (bnsf971) very much. Pete
By the way is it ok to use a dab of Vaseline to hold the coupler in place while I try to snap the cover plate on? It needs something while my fat fingers put these things together. I was able to fix one coupler with a spring on it so it will work now. I have a KD coupler gauge so that helps with the height. How lucky can a guy get? Ha!
 
Pete - You posted Kadee #149, it's #148 which is the more modern updated version of #5.
Do not use Vaseline, as the coupler will get stuck in the box and will not operate. The #148's are the easiest to install and just take two hands if the freight car is resting on a table/workbench. After the first few cars, it becomes very easy.
Post pictures of the coupler box on unidentified cars and most likely someone here can assist you even more. Most manufacturers eventually tooled their cars to use the #5's or the #148's during production runs. They are interchangeable.
 
Standardize on one brand, Kadee is the most popular and considered the most reliable, they also have the widest variety.
If you go with Kadee, buy a coupler guage.
A lot of older cars have truck mounted horn hook couplers. Those take more work to convert. Generally the best option is to cut the old couplers off the trucks and install a new coupler box on the car with a screw. May require shims between the box and the car. If there is a large disparity of height, Kadee sells "offset" couplers where the head is above or below the shank.
Unfortunately, with the older cars there are lots of different arrangements of couplers and underframes so you may have to work through it on a case by case basis. I would sort the cars by coupler mount and underframe type, then when you figure out what you have to do with one mounting, you can replicate it on the others.
The "Yugoslavia" car is probably an AHM car, but there were a lot of model cars produced in Yugoslavia back in the day, it's not a brand, it's a place of manufacture, as in "Made in Yugoslavia".
 
Bonita Grand Central said:
Hi Willie and thanks for the reply. I've been studying the KD instructions and it looks like #5 is the most popular and the #149 is there a lot too. What threw me off was not being able to tell the manufacturer of the cars. I have one from Life Like and one from Yugoslavia. The LL is listed but not the Yugoslavia one. I have no idea if I have any older Athearn freight cars or not but wouldn't be surprised if I did. This is a collection of cars going back to the 70's from all sorts of suppliers. Anyway I'll order some #5's and some #149's to get me going and see what happens after that.
I appreciate the reply from you and from Gomez (bnsf971) very much. Pete
By the way is it ok to use a dab of Vaseline to hold the coupler in place while I try to snap the cover plate on? It needs something while my fat fingers put these things together. I was able to fix one coupler with a spring on it so it will work now. I have a KD coupler gauge so that helps with the height. How lucky can a guy get? Ha!
Click to expand...
My freight cars have a variety of types of knuckle couplers and they all are compatible with each other. Maybe I am just lucky?

As far as Kadee, I like the #148 whisker coupler mostly because easier to install than the #5.

Dave LASM
 
santafewillie said:
Pete - You posted Kadee #149, it's #148 which is the more modern updated version of #5.
Do not use Vaseline, as the coupler will get stuck in the box and will not operate. The #148's are the easiest to install and just take two hands if the freight car is resting on a table/workbench. After the first few cars, it becomes very easy.
Post pictures of the coupler box on unidentified cars and most likely someone here can assist you even more. Most manufacturers eventually tooled their cars to use the #5's or the #148's during production runs. They are interchangeable.
Click to expand...
I saw that when I looked up KD to order and wanted to ask you about that today. So you answered all my questions already. Back about five years ago when I first got into this coupler stuff the #5 was most common and now it's the 148. Got to look and see where i can order them from. Thanks again for the help.
 
dave1905 said:
Standardize on one brand, Kadee is the most popular and considered the most reliable, they also have the widest variety.
If you go with Kadee, buy a coupler guage.
A lot of older cars have truck mounted horn hook couplers. Those take more work to convert. Generally the best option is to cut the old couplers off the trucks and install a new coupler box on the car with a screw. May require shims between the box and the car. If there is a large disparity of height, Kadee sells "offset" couplers where the head is above or below the shank.
Unfortunately, with the older cars there are lots of different arrangements of couplers and underframes so you may have to work through it on a case by case basis. I would sort the cars by coupler mount and underframe type, then when you figure out what you have to do with one mounting, you can replicate it on the others.
The "Yugoslavia" car is probably an AHM car, but there were a lot of model cars produced in Yugoslavia back in the day, it's not a brand, it's a place of manufacture, as in "Made in Yugoslavia".
Click to expand...
Hi Dave and thanks for the reply. I do have a coupler gauge and will be checking all the coupler heights as I go along. That's something that has never been done to all my rolling stock and I hope it will improve the operation when it's done. I see your point about separating the types of coupler and that's a great idea. Why didn't I think of that? Ha! The rest of your comment makes good sense too. Looks like the BGC will run again after all. As for Yugoslavia, yes, I know where it is and I once almost bought a Yugo. Imagine that. I just wish it was mandatory for all mfg's to indicate what they make. It would make things a lot easier. Thanks for your help.
 
logandsawman said:
My freight cars have a variety of types of knuckle couplers and they all are compatible with each other. Maybe I am just lucky?

As far as Kadee, I like the #148 whisker coupler mostly because easier to install than the #5.

Dave LASM
Click to expand...
Good point Dave. I think my troubles are broken couplers and missing couplers rather than different makes. As I get into this stuff I'm learning a lot from you and the other members. I'll be ordering the #148 to start off with and see where to go after that. Appreciate your interest. Pete
 
Bonita Grand Central said:
Thanks for that Gomez but that doesn't tell me what to start with. I can't figure out what to order to get this project going. Who ever thought there were so many kinds of couplers? I sure didn't. Like that yellow one right about in the middle. The wheels and trucks are good but the couplers don't work well. They open up and come loose or don't fit well with other couplers so it can't be used. The green one just under the yellow one is the same way. They both have knuckle couplers that won't hold so I need some new ones.
Click to expand...
There are days I hate using my phone to post stuff. This is one of them. I didn't notice only half of my post made it, at least others have helped you...
 
bnsf971 said:
There are days I hate using my phone to post stuff. This is one of them. I didn't notice only half of my post made it, at least others have helped you...
Click to expand...
Not a problem Terry. Right now I'm trying to find out how to get rid of Google. It has taken over my PC and I hate it. They also seem to have fixed it so I can't download anything else too. These guys need to be in prison for monopolizing the internet. Anyway Willie and the others have come to my rescue, and I've ordered the first bunch of #148 to work with. Maybe I can find the gear box and the cover for the 148 so I can put them together on the bench and then glue them to the car bodies and eliminate the truck mounted couplers. We'll see what happens.
 
I had a friend that bought a new Yugo. It wasn't until the weather got cold that he discovered something: there was no heater output for his feet! Dash vents, yes. Windshield vents, yes. Footwell vents, nope! No toasty tootsies in that car!
 
I use Kadee #148 whiskers. I find them to be very reliable and work well with Kadee uncoupling magnets as well as my Rix uncoupling tool. They also couple at very slow speed, I like that.

The only cars that I haven't changed (at least not yet) are my Walthers Proto cars. In my experience Proto Max couplers work very well with the 148s.
 
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